


Like Real People Do

by rogueshadows



Category: God's Own Country
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-15 09:30:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13610475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rogueshadows/pseuds/rogueshadows
Summary: A collection of God's Own Country fic/ficlets, ranging in rating. The plan is to write at least a few more short pieces about these boys and this lovely film because I love it a lot!Title courtesy of Hozier ♥





	1. Rise and Shine (Rated G)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misskatieleigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskatieleigh/gifts).



> Thanks to misskatieleigh for beta'ing and making me write fic too after we watched the movie together. Check out her excellent fic of the pairing as well ♥

It’s too early when the alarm goes off, and too cold by far in the space where the blanket doesn’t cover Johnny’s feet. He curls up, pressing further into Gheorghe’s side even as he pulls away to switch off the alarm. Johnny reaches out a wandering hand to tangle in Gheorghe’s sleep shirt, reeling him back in as he sighs out a laugh. It’s still dark out the window, something he’s regrettably gotten used to.

“Few more minutes,” he mumbles as Gheorghe ducks in to kiss him, soft and warm, like he’s bringing Johnny out of a damn fairy tale dream. Gheorghe tries to pull away, but Johnny doesn’t let go of his shirt, blinking open his eyes to look at his man. Gheorghe is beautiful in the soft focus of their closeness. He tries to look put upon at being held, but Johnny sees the hint of a smirk cross his features.

“Good morning,” Gheorghe says, “we have to get up to take care of the animals.”

Johnny shifts his face closer, nuzzling his nose against Gheorghe’s to murmur softly between them, hearing Gheorghe's soft sigh of reproach and paying it no mind.

“They’ll keep a minute,” Johnny says, uncurling his fingers and bringing his hand up to brush against Gheorghe’s face, loving the feeling of his beard. Gheorghe rolls his eyes but doesn’t push Johnny away when he leans in to capture his lips again. The kiss is earnest and slow, more about the touch than the tendrils of lust in Johnny’s stomach. Every morning they wake like this is a reminder that he isn’t alone anymore, that if he plays his cards right and doesn’t fuck this up, he might never be alone again. Gheorghe breaks from the kiss first, more responsible as ever. Johnny sighs in the wake, but doesn’t try to keep him again, as much as his hands still crave Gheorghe’s skin.

“Let’s go,” Gheorghe says with a smile playing at his lips, as he eases back and slips out of bed to get ready. Johnny follows him, getting dressed and then out into the breaking darkness of the early morning. They see to the animals and watch the sunrise together and for all the work there isn’t anywhere Johnny would rather be.


	2. No Rush (Rated M)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The house is empty and entirely belonging to him and Gheorghe for once. Johnny means to make use of their time without prying eyes and ears as best he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continual thanks to misskatieleigh for encouragement and beta-ing and yelling <3

Nan and Dad’ve gone off to a wedding or baptism or something at the church in town. Johnny can’t quite remember which, but the point is: the house is empty. Empty and entirely belonging to him and Gheorghe for once. Johnny means to make use of their time without prying eyes and ears as best he can. Gheorghe’s barely back inside the house from the field when Johnny’s on him, pressing him back against the wall in an eager kiss. Gheorghe kisses back, just as searing, but less frenzied, pressing a calming hand to Johnny’s chest.

Johnny pulls back to let him catch his breath, darting in to kiss at his neck instead as Gheorghe lets out a soft laugh.

“Are we rushing?” Gheorghe asks, somehow managing to sound serious despite Johnny’s fervent attention. He slides his other hand to Johnny’s hip to squeeze teasingly. Johnny flushes at that alone because he’s so keyed up, deciding he wants nothing more than to pull Gheorghe’s pants off and have him right in the kitchen, while they _can_. The thought is so intense he can’t breathe, heat pooling in his stomach.

“Don’t want to waste any of our time alone,” Johnny answers against Gheorghe’s skin, nipping a bite at the space where his neck just meets the thick fabric of his sweater. His hands are on their own mission, reaching for the front of Gheorghe’s thick work jeans to unbutton them. Gheorghe brings a hand up and slides it into Johnny’s hair, curling his fingers to pull him back. 

“There’s plenty of time,” Gheorghe says, leaning in to press a trail of kisses from Johnny’s temple back down to his lips. The hand in his hair keeps Johnny still this time, letting Gheorghe take the time to lick into his mouth more thoroughly. His heart rate calms at the ease of it, the promise that Gheorghe isn’t going anywhere like an exhale of tension. The hardness of Johnny’s cock at the soft touches aches, making him shift forward unconsciously to press against Gheorghe’s thigh. Gheorghe pulls back from their kiss to shoot Johnny an amused look, likely twice so for how dazed Johnny must look.

The bastard loves to tease, loves to press Johnny’s buttons and see him undone. Johnny supposes he deserves it and, well, he loves it too. He swallows hard around the thought. 

“Are you going to let me touch you ‘afore they get back or not?” Johnny asks, aware of how petulant he sounds. Gheorghe grins.

“If you have some manners, maybe.” It’s a game they’ve been playing recently, and Johnny can’t keep back the huffed out sigh that Gheorghe really wants him to beg with so little time. The soft chiding of the words make him feel even more on edge in spite of the annoyance. 

“Please,” he says, settling his weight against Gheorghe more fully, pressing his lips close to Gheorghe’s ear to breath hotly, “please, let me suck your cock.” He says the last word in a mimic of Gheorghe’s accent, making him snort even as he shoots Johnny an incredulous look.

“Right here?” Gheorghe asks, teasingly tracing the fingers that had been tangled in Johnny’s hair down his neck so slowly that he shivers. Gheorghe shifts his thigh and Johnny nearly gasps at the increased pressure against his straining cock. Johnny’s body cries out for attention and still he wants nothing more than to see Gheorghe come first. He nods desperately.

“Yes, right here, unless you’ve a better preference?” Johnny says impatiently.

Gheorghe shakes his head, finally letting up on his grip to let Johnny do as he pleases. Johnny slides away and down to his knees, almost dizzy from the sudden shift. Gheorghe lets him do all the work, favoring to watch Johnny fumble with the button of his jeans rather than help. If it weren’t for the fact that Johnny can feel the bulge, can hear the small breathy sounds Gheorghe makes, he’d think the man were unaffected. Johnny gets the jeans undone and far enough down his thighs that he’s exposed and Gheorghe settles a hand on Johnny’s shoulder and another on his neck, brushing against his pulse in small motions of his thumb. Johnny manages to keep focus even with the soft touch, scrambling to get Gheorghe’s underwear off until his cock bobs free of them, hard and curving and irresistibly flushed. 

Johnny leans in to swallow it down as far as he can and Gheorghe lets out a curse. Gheorghe slides his hand from Johnny’s neck, bringing it up to tangle in his hair instead and control the pace. He doesn’t pull or press like some men have in Johnny’s past, instead making Johnny take his time, keeping him from choking himself in his eagerness. Johnny loves the hot taste of Gheorghe’s skin more than anything, the sounds he makes when he lets Johnny take him apart. He laps out his tongue to drag against the underside, keenly aware of how the move makes Gheorghe’s thighs shake where Johnny’s hands press against them. He knows Gheorghe won’t draw this out too long, will let himself let go far earlier than he could hold out for, but Johnny almost wishes he could do this all day. Johnny looks up through his eyelashes and Gheorghe meets his gaze with lips parted sinfully.

Johnny drags his mouth off of Gheorghe’s length, to breathe and to mouth lazily at Gheorghe’s inner thigh and savor this. He sucks a bruise there on a whim while Gheorghe sighs.

“Now you tease me,” Gheorghe says, sounding strained for all his attempted composure. Johnny smiles up at him, turning his head to kiss Gheorghe’s cock instead.

“Y’always tease me,” Johnny says between kisses, “it’s only fair.”

For all his talk, Johnny returns to his task with thoroughness, aching for Gheorghe’s release nearly as much as his own to follow. He doesn’t touch himself, knowing it’d be too much a distraction, wanting nothing but this sensation, the wild heat on his tongue and the fire it sets alight in his own veins. He knows Gheorghe is close to coming by the way his grip tightens, he never begs or calls out as much as Johnny carries on. It’s a habit Johnny suddenly hopes to break him of while they’re alone, turning his tongue with a particularly deft twist against the head of his cock. He feels a swell of pride when Gheorghe whimpers out a sound this time, head banging back against the wall as he jerks and comes down Johnny’s throat. 

He swallows down the release and laps Gheorghe through his orgasm with a few final licks to his oversensitive cock before Gheorghe pulls away. Johnny swallows hard, throat feeling raw in the most satisfying way.

Gheorghe doesn’t look so strung out when their eyes meet, still breathing hard but biting back a smile at his lips. Johnny hears the crush of gravel outside from the truck’s wheels, far earlier than he’d imagined. He nearly panics before Gheorghe is pulling up his pants deftly and tugging Johnny up off his knees.

“We’ll finish this in our room, unless _you_ have a ‘better preference’?” Johnny can’t hold back the laugh, letting himself be dragged down the hall. They rush upstairs to their room and Gheorghe wrings him out thoroughly, with a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, and Johnny doesn’t regret a thing.


	3. Laying Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lying in the grass together, laying out feelings <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For misskatieleigh, my lovely beta <3

They go out by the old stone house on the cusp of the finite spring, to see that the fences and walls are still intact. Without much more work than reinforcing a few loose hinges, it turns into a lazy day. Nan’s off to the market, so she won’t worry, and dad’s with his visiting nurse, his pride all but banishing them from the house while she’s round. Gheorghe would likely go back still, would check on the cows all over and make sure everything’s in order with care, if not for how Johnny flops on the grass. Gheorghe looks down at him and tilts his head, a smile playing at his lips.

“Lay w’me?” Johnny asks, with a look that’s meant to be enticing, but only makes Gheorghe duck his head in laughter. He falls to his knees anyway, shifting to lay down on his side beside Johnny in the soft green of the grass. Johnny smiles, turning his head away from the clouded sky to meet his eyes. Gheorghe props his head up on one elbow, looking down at Johnny with an expression that reminds him of _home_ every time.

Gheorghe reaches out with his other hand, brushing his fingers across Johnny’s stomach where his t-shirt has ridden up. He grins at the ticklish squirm Johnny gives, flattening his hand out over the edge of the fabric to smooth it down. The small motion is just one of thousands that brings Johnny’s heart close to bursting on a daily basis. Johnny covers Gheorghe’s hand with his own, rubbing his thumb over the back of it. He’s reminded of the first time they’d touched out here without anger, how Gheorghe took Johnny’s injured hand in the cold as if he had the power to heal.

He grips Gheorghe’s hand now, bringing it to his own lips to kiss each digit with care. Gheorghe doesn’t pull away, watching Johnny intently as if he’s something good and worth seeing. The way the sun makes a halo around his curled hair is a sight Johnny knows he won’t forget. 

“Love your hands,” Johnny says, under Gheorghe’s sure gaze. Gheorghe pulls his hand away at the words and there’s only an instant before he’s leaning in to otherwise occupy Johnny’s mouth with warm lips. 

“I love you,” Gheorghe murmurs against his mouth, swallowing the glad sound it elicits from Johnny’s throat. With the press of his lips Johnny tries to communicate for all his worth, for all the years spent in silence before Gheorghe came, _me too_.


	4. Where To Begin

They stand there after, pulling apart from the embrace that had been miles coming, miles of fear and hope and Johnny’s resolve to set things right.

“There’s still a lot to talk about, to change. Like I said that night.” Gheorghe says, with a tick of his jaw like the memory still stings. Johnny doesn’t blame him, feels the ache of regret like the bile in his throat the morning after, along with the cold realization that Gheorghe was gone. That he was alone again at his own fault.

Johnny nods, even though he’s scared, willing to do this, to do anything for a second chance. It’s almost harder to say than the initial confession, knowing now that even though Gheorghe wants him back reality might break them still. Johnny knows there’s more than wanting now because want hadn’t kept him from hurting Gheorghe in the first place. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen before. I know it’ll be fair though, I promise that if you’ll let me.” 

Gheorghe smiles like daybreak, tentative on the horizon of a bleak sky, with faith. Johnny reaches out a hand, an offering, a surrender. Unsure if he deserves it but still brimming with light in his heart, in hope.

“I’ll let you,” Gheorghe says. “Let’s go home.”

_\---_

It doesn’t sink in that this is real until the road is stretching past the coach window. Gheorghe’s hand is a warm weight in his, as grounding and honest as the moment Johnny had stopped being too blind to notice. Johnny looks over and meets Gheorghe’s soft gaze with a thrum in his chest. It’s the relief of the lights flickering back to life in a storm, of a lamb’s first fragile breath, of surviving the worst he’s done to himself. He hopes he can build them both a life to be proud of, even if the words still feel too big in his mouth. 

“You can stop staring,” Gheorghe says, sounding amused. Johnny smiles, shaking his head, knowing he must look like a right fool and not caring.

“Really can’t,” he says, and then, breaking in with a note of too much honesty, “can’t believe you’re here.”

“I am,” Gheorghe says, squeezing Johnny’s hand in assurance, a smile playing at his lips. “I can’t just get out of a moving coach after all.” 

“Shut it,” Johnny says back with affection in his voice as he finally breaks his eyes away. The feeling of Gheorghe pressed warmly against him in the seat is reminder enough, as he watches the countryside roll past instead, counting the miles in tender breaths and murmured conversation. 

Sunlight passes by and Johnny can’t keep his eyes open, despite the relief in his chest. He buries his face in Gheorghe’s shoulder and dreams.

\---

There’s not much of a fuss over Gheorghe’s return and Johnny is grateful. His father is already in bed and Nan stands in the kitchen looking none too surprised at their sudden appearance hand in hand. She looks over at them both and speaks.

“Welcome back you two. Caused quite a fuss here, didn’t you?” Nan says with more kindness in her voice than he’d expected. Gheorghe smiles at her.

“I apologize, for leaving so fast.”

“None of that,” she says with a shake of her head, a smile playing at her lips in spite of her dour demeanor. “Just go see t’the animals a'last time b’fore bed, will you?” Johnny nods, uncurling his hand from Gheorghe’s. The loss of touch makes him feel unmoored, but Gheorghe stays close by his side, following him out to the barn.

A few of the sheep have settled there, as they were wont to do, the others out roaming still in the mild weather. Gheorghe approaches one and it bleats as he crouches to settle his hand on its soft wool, as if he were offering her an apology too. Another sheep butts at Gheorghe’s shoulder and he laughs. Johnny feels a coil of guilt in his stomach. He doesn’t know how to articulate the fact that he never wants to picture Gheorghe anywhere but here again. Never wants to be the cause of that separation between him and this quiet life he loves.

“Those’r the last few of our lambs,” Johnny says, “I think they’ve missed you.”

"The sheep missed me, of course," Gheorghe says with an amused smile, one that Johnny returns with a little bit less weight in his chest. 

Johnny turns to the cows then, checking to see that they haven’t mucked up their bedding. They seem content, but he refills their water for good measure. Gheorghe stands from where he’d been with the sheep, hangs in the doorway and waits, reaching a hand out to Johnny as they walk back to the house. He’s glad when they bypass the caravan entirely, not wanting any question between them of where Gheorghe belongs.

They go upstairs to his room, passing over the creaky floorboards with mindfulness of Nan settling in for sleep. They go in his room and Johnny shuts the door behind them. Gheorghe looks as tired as Johnny feels, despite their sleep on the coach, stripping off his sweater and thick jeans. Johnny follows suit, feeling the hint of fire under his skin at the sight of Gheorghe, even through his exhaustion. Gheorghe lies back on Johnny’s bed as though he’s done it a thousand times, looking just as comfortable as the nights they’d shared with the house to themselves.

Johnny switches off the light and climbs in with him. The tight fit of the small mattress is a comfort just so he doesn’t have to hide the way his skin craves contact. Johnny curls on his side, resting his head against Gheorghe’s shoulder as their legs tangle, shifting until they both find how they fit together. Gheorghe ducks in, pressing a kiss to his temple and Johnny lets out a tired sigh, shutting his eyes to bask in this man who he doesn’t deserve, but somehow has. Gheorghe’s fingers splay against Johnny’s back, and it feels as if he could meld them back together if he only held on tight enough. 

Johnny presses a kiss to Gheorghe’s shoulder, then another and more. To every piece of skin that he can reach in reverence, until Gheorghe brings up a hand to cup his jaw. Gheorghe tilts his face up just so and their eyes meet in the dark, with only the sound of Johnny’s anxious breaths between them. Gheorghe captures his lips and Johnny’s worry fades slowly, like the ebb of the tide against a full moon. It’s tender and overwhelming like no time has passed at all. He feels the tears prick at his eyes and he’s barely conscious of it until Gheorghe pulls back with a worried sound, bringing a hand up to brush them away from Johnny’s cheek.

“M’sorry,” Johnny says, embarrassed. There’s a raw feeling inside that won’t leave him alone.

“Shh John,” Gheorghe says, hands soothing and warm, fingers coming up to curl in his hair, letting him cry wet tears onto his shoulder.

“I was so alone,” Johnny says, “w’out you here. You said y’aren’t the answer and I know, but, without you, was like I was nothing.”

“I know,” Gheorghe admits, voice gone a bit rough. “I missed you. Even when you broke my heart, I couldn’t forget. I couldn't...” His breaks off and it makes Johnny look up because Gheorghe is always so sure, always just seems to know the answers before he speaks. Now, Gheorghe looks just as lost and Johnny feels a wave of guilt that he’s done that.

 _“M’sorry,”_ Johnny whispers again, aching when Gheorghe shakes his head.

“That’s over now, right?”

Johnny nods, taking a shaky breath and knowing he must look a mess now. Gheorghe doesn’t let him hide his face again, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. 

“It is,” Johnny says and he means it so much he could burn, “I promise it is.”

Gheorghe’s grip on the back of his neck tightens and then relaxes. He runs his hand down Johnny’s back, and Johnny soaks up the forgiving touch until he can breathe evenly again.

“Good,” Gheorghe whispers back, a relieving trust in the finality of his tone. “We should sleep.”

He feels the press of lips on the top of his head and shuts his eyes for lack of argument, knowing Gheorghe will be there when he wakes.


End file.
